Destiny 2’s first expansion takes you to Mercury (update: Bungie confirms)

The first expansion for Destiny 2 is called Curse of Osiris and will focus on the titular Warlock who gave his name to Destiny’s most intense competitive multiplayer event, according to a product page on the Xbox Store.

Curse of Osiris will introduce a new playable planet, Mercury, with a zone called the Infinite Forest. This will be the first time that players have been able to explore the closest planet to the sun in story missions or open-world activities. So far, Mercury has only been playable as the setting for the Lighthouse, a social space in the original Destiny, and for four Crucible maps across both games.

The Lighthouse was accessible only to players who had gone on a flawless 9-0 run in Trials of Osiris, the high-stakes weekend Crucible event in Destiny. (Bungie announced yesterday that Trials of the Nine, the equivalent event in Destiny 2, will begin Sept. 15.) Osiris is a “legendary Warlock” in Destiny lore who served as a mentor for the Warlock Vanguard, Ikora Rey, according to the product listing for Curse of Osiris. Here’s the full description, which you can see screencaps of below:

Destiny 2 Expansion I: Curse of Osiris continues your Guardian’s journey with all-new story missions and adventures set in a new destination, Mercury. Journey through time and space to learn the secrets of Osiris, avert a dark future, and rebuild the ties between the legendary Warlock and his greatest student — Ikora Rey.

Features:

- Explore Mercury and its mysterious “Infinite Forest”
- New story missions and adventures
- New themed weapons, armor, and gear to earn
- New cooperative activities
- New competitive multiplayer arenas
- And more...

The information in the listing corroborates a report from Kotaku last week about Destiny 2’s first expansion. That report included the Curse of Osiris name and mentioned that the add-on will also open up the Lighthouse to all Destiny 2 players as a new social space in the game. “The DLC’s story will revolve around saving Osiris — who has been mentioned quite a bit in Destiny lore but not yet seen in the game — from the robotic alien Vex,” Kotaku reported.

One piece of information from the Kotaku story that isn’t included in the listing is the release window for Curse of Osiris: It’s reportedly scheduled to launch in December. That would be about three months after the debut of Destiny 2 itself — the same timing that Bungie and publisher Activision chose for the original game’s first expansion, The Dark Below. It sounds like Curse of Osiris will offer much more to players than The Dark Below, which was Destiny’s thinnest expansion even though it included a new raid. Curse of Osiris would be the first of two planned pieces of downloadable content for Destiny 2; together, they comprise the game’s $34.99 Expansion Pass.

We’ve reached out to Activision for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive. For more on Destiny 2, read our review-in-progress, and check out our extensive FAQ and our guide.

Update: Bungie has confirmed the existence of Curse of Osiris.

“Curse of Osiris is not a leak. It’s real,” said Eric Osborne, marketing director at the studio, on Twitter today. We’ve edited the article to reflect this.

A representative for Activision told Polygon that information about Curse of Osiris will be posted to Destiny’s official website later today.